Deploying Virtual Agent topics in other channels
Summarize
Summary of Deploying Virtual Agent topics in other channels
ServiceNow Virtual Agent allows you to deploy topics and topic blocks across multiple chat channels, including default native channels like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, Facebook Messenger, and web or mobile clients. Additionally, you can extend support to custom channels via conversational custom chat integrations, enabling Virtual Agent to interact with third-party chat providers such as Skype or SMS.
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Specifying Channels for Topics
When creating or editing a topic or topic block, you can specify the target chat channels in the Channels field under Advanced properties on the Topic Properties page. This ensures that the topic runs only in the selected channels, including any custom channels integrated into your instance. This capability helps tailor conversations to the capabilities and constraints of each channel.
Conversation Design and Channel Guardrails
The Assistant Designer Asset library provides built-in guardrails during conversation design to ensure that controls used in topics are valid for the specified channels. If a control is unsupported in a chosen channel, Virtual Agent displays warnings in both the Properties tab and the Flow tab, highlighting unsupported controls on specific nodes or sections of the conversation flow. This allows you to revise the conversation or branch flows to use only supported controls, ensuring a seamless user experience across all channels.
Managing and Viewing Available Channels
You can view and filter available chat channels in your instance via the Assistant Designer Asset library or by inspecting the Messaging Channels [syscschannel] table. Default channels include common messaging platforms and web/mobile clients, while custom channels appear based on your conversational chat integrations. Filtering by channel type also helps organize topics by their applicable channels on the home page.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Deploy Virtual Agent topics seamlessly across multiple chat platforms, expanding user reach and engagement.
- Leverage custom integrations to support unique or proprietary chat channels beyond default options.
- Design conversations with channel-specific constraints in mind, reducing errors and improving user experience.
- Maintain visibility and control over the channels in which your Virtual Agent topics operate, simplifying management and updates.
When creating a topic or topic block, you can specify the chat channels in which the topic or topic block will run. During conversation design, Assistant Designer Asset library provides built-in guardrails to help you tailor your conversations to those channels.
In Virtual Agent, a channel is a chat interface or application in which Virtual Agent interacts with end users. Default channels are the chat applications natively supported by Virtual Agent, such as the Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, and Facebook Messenger applications, and the web and mobile clients. Virtual Agent also supports custom channels created through the conversational custom chat integrations feature, which enables third-party applications (other chat providers) to work in Virtual Agent.
For example, admins can build a custom conversational chat integration for a specific messaging provider, such as Skype. Admins also define the controls that can be used in topics that run in these channels. For details about creating channels for chat providers and specifying the controls used in a channel, see Creating conversational custom chat integrations in Virtual Agent.
Specifying channels in your topics or topic blocks
When you create or edit a topic or topic block, you can specify the applicable channels in the Channels field under Advanced properties in the Topic Properties page. Applicable channels are the custom channels created for your instance through the conversational custom chat integrations. Use this field to specify chat clients in which the topic or topic block will run.
During conversation design, Virtual Agent checks the various controls used to build the conversation flow. This is to confirm that the control is valid for the channels in which the topic or block will run.
Design checks for specified channels during conversation design
- Properties tab (Topic Properties page)
In the following example, Skype and SMS are the additional channels in which the topic will run. The banner message identifies the controls that are not supported on the channels for the topic. As you develop the conversation flow, you can revise your conversation so that it does not use any of the specified controls for your selected channels.
Figure 2. Topic Properties tab with defined channels - Flow tab (Assistant Designer Asset library canvas)
In the following example flow, the banner message identifies the controls that not supported for the specified channels. The property sheet for the affected nodes also displays a message indicating that the control is not supported. For example, when you highlight a particular node, the property sheet for the node indicates that the control is unsupported in Skype and SMS channels.
If you have controls that can't be used, you can branch the flow so that you can continue building the flow with the controls that are supported.
Figure 3. Topic Flow tab with channel warnings
Finding the channels available in your instance
To see a list of the available channels in your instance, use the filter icon (
) in Assistant Designer Asset library. The Messaging Channels [sys_cs_channel] table also shows the available channels.
The default channels in Virtual Agent are the web chat and mobile clients and also the Virtual Agent messaging integrations for the Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, and Facebook Messenger messaging applications. In the previous example, SMS is an available chat channel that was created for your instance through a conversational chat integration. When you choose a channel, the home page lists your topics (cards) by channel type. For more information, see Creating conversational custom chat integrations in Virtual Agent.